Prominent downstate Democrats to dominate when Electoral College votes

ALBANY -- When 29 insiders with the ultimate vote in electing the president meet in the state's Capitol next month, the gathering will be testament to the overwhelming power of downstate Democrats.

State Board of Elections records show more than half of the Democratic presidential electors traveling to Albany Dec. 17 to cast their Electoral College votes for Barack Obama are from New York City. Overall, two-thirds of the 29 electors are from the city or its suburbs.

Outside of the New York City area, the Buffalo and Rochester regions each have two electors, and Ithaca and Syracuse each have one. There are two electors with Albany addresses: Mayor Gerald Jennings and Gov. Andrew Cuomo. Though Cuomo's address as an elector is listed as the Executive Mansion in Albany, he lives and votes in Mt. Kisco in Westchester County.

The only elector with a truly rural upstate address is Democratic State Executive Committee Chairwoman Sheila Comar, a retired title insurance industry executive from Connecticut who lives in the tiny hamlet of Middle Granville in Washington County.

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Assemblyman Jim Tedisco, R-Glenville, said it's no surprise this year's presidential electors are mostly from New York City. "It's kind of a form of geographic discrimination but the fact of the matter is the largest Democratic base is in New York City," he said. "So they will do what they always do -- cater to where their base is."

If Mitt Romney had won, "we would have had more representation from upstate New York because that's where the Republican base is," he said.

The last Republican presidential candidate to carry New York was Ronald Reagan.

Of the 29 total electors, 22 are men and the majority are white. No state Senate Democrat made the cut, though Democrats did make room for a well-connected New York City lobbyist named Emily Giske to be included. The number of electors is derived from the number of House districts in the state, plus the two U.S. Senate seats.

The electors' vote is being planned by the secretary of state's office. This week, a spokesman said questions about the event would only be accepted if they were submitted by email, though the public information office did not answer the email inquiry either.

Tedisco criticized the Electoral College, saying that if we stick with it, votes should be counted proportionally by Congressional District rather than the current winner-take-all system. As it stands, New York is such a reliably Democratic state that presidential candidates don't bother to campaign here, he said.

Party leaders select the electors to formally cast votes for president, with the results opened Jan. 6 in Washington and read aloud on the Senate floor to formally end the process of electing the president. Apart from the selection of state electors, the entire procedure is set by federal law.

If Romney had carried New York, Republicans had their own lineup of electors ready to go, including former State Sen. Douglas Barclay, Assembly Minority Leader Brian Kolb and Assemblyman William Reilich.

But the GOP ticket did poorly in New York, winning just 36 percent of the vote compared to 63 percent for Obama. The final vote total was Obama with 3.8 million to Romney's 2.2 million. Nationally, Obama received 64 million votes, compared to 59.9 million for Romney, for an Electoral College victory of 332-206.